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Machairodontine
Machairodontinae (from Ancient Greek μάχαιρα ''machaira,'' a type of Ancient Greek sword and ὀδόντος ''odontos'' meaning tooth) is an extinct subfamily of carnivoran mammals of the cat family Felidae, representing the earliest diverging major branch of the family. Machairodonts varied in size from comparable to lynxes to exceeding that of lions. The Machairodontinae contain many of the extinct predators commonly known as "saber-toothed cats", including those with greatly elongated upper maxillary canines, such as the famed genus ''Smilodon'' and ''Megantereon,'' though the degree of elongation was variable, and in some machairodontines like ''Dinofelis'' the length of the upper canines was much more modest. Sometimes, other carnivorous mammals with elongated teeth are also called saber-toothed cats, although they do not belong to the felids. Besides the machairodonts, other saber-toothed predators also arose in the nimravids, barbourofelids, machaeroidines, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smilodon
''Smilodon'' is an extinct genus of Felidae, felids. It is one of the best known saber-toothed predators and prehistoric mammals. Although commonly known as the saber-toothed tiger, it was not closely related to the tiger or other modern cats, belonging to the extinct subfamily Machairodontinae, with an estimated date of Speciation, divergence from the ancestor of living cats around 20 million years ago. ''Smilodon'' was one of the last surviving machairodonts alongside ''Homotherium''. ''Smilodon'' lived in the Americas during the Pleistocene to early Holocene epoch (2.5 Year#mya, mya – at latest 8,200 years ago). The genus was named in 1842 based on fossils from Brazil; the generic name means or combined with . Three species are recognized today: ''S. gracilis'', ''S. fatalis'', and ''S. populator''. The two latter species were probably descended from ''S. gracilis'', which itself probably evolved from ''Megantereon''. The hundreds of specimens obtained from the La Brea T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinofelis
''Dinofelis'' is an extinct genus of machairodontine (sabre-toothed cat), usually classified in the tribe Metailurini. It was widespread in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America from 5 million to about 1.2 million years ago (early Pliocene to early Pleistocene). Fossils very similar to ''Dinofelis'' from Lothagam range back to around 8 million years ago, in the Late Miocene. Discovery and naming The genus ''Dinofelis'' was originally named by Otto Zdansky in 1924 for the species ''Dinofelis abeli''. Further fossil species were named, including ''Felis diastemata'' and ''Meganthereon barlowi'', which were later transferred to the genus ''Therailurus'', which was in turn later considered a junior synonym of ''Dinofelis''. A comprehensive review of the genus was published in 2001 by paleontologists Lars Werdelin and Margaret E. Lewis, including mentions of the then-unnamed Langebaanweg and Lothagam species, as well as naming a new species ''Dinofelis aronoki''; the species ep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homotherium
''Homotherium'' is an extinct genus of Homotherini, scimitar-toothed cat belonging to the extinct subfamily Machairodontinae that inhabited North America, Eurasia, and Africa, as well as possibly South America during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs from around 4 million to 12,000 years ago. It was one of the last surviving members of the subfamily alongside the more famous sabertooth ''Smilodon'', to which it was not particularly closely related. It was a large cat, comparable in size to a lion, functioning as an apex predator in the ecosystems it inhabited. It had an elongate neck and relatively elongate legs, a relatively short back and a very short tail, with the mummy of a ''H. latidens'' cub of Late Pleistocene age found in Siberia having a plain dark brown coat colour. In comparison to ''Smilodon'', the canines of ''Homotherium'' were shorter, though still longer than those of living cats, and it is suggested to have had a different ecology from ''Smilodon'' as a pursuit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Machairodus
''Machairodus'' (from , 'knife' and 'tooth') is a genus of large Machairodontinae, machairodont or ''saber-toothed cat'' that lived in Africa and Eurasia during the Middle Miocene, Middle to Late Miocene, from 12.5 million to 8.7 million years ago. It is the animal from which the subfamily Machairodontinae gets its name. The type species of the genus, ''M. aphanistus'', was comparable to tigers in size making it an apex predator of the ecosystems it inhabited. It is currently usually placed as one of the most basal members of the tribe Homotherini, and the ancestor of later members of the tribe. History of research and taxonomy ''Machairodus'' was first named in 1832, by German Naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup. Though its remains had been known since 1824, it was believed by Georges Cuvier that the fossils had come from a species of bear, which he called ''Ursus cultridens'' (known today as ''Megantereon'') based on composite sample of teeth from different countries, species and g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Megantereon
''Megantereon'' is an extinct genus of prehistoric machairodontine saber-toothed cat that lived in Eurasia, Africa and possibly North America from the late Pliocene to the Middle Pleistocene. It is a member of the tribe Smilodontini, and closely related to and possibly the ancestor of the famous American sabertooth ''Smilodon''. In comparison to ''Smilodon'' it was somewhat smaller, around the size of a jaguar, though it is thought to have had a similar hunting strategy as an ambush predator. Taxonomy and evolution The type species of ''Meganteron'', ''M. cultridens'' was described by Georges Cuvier in 1824, as '' Ursus cultridens'', based on two teeth collected from Pliocene sediments in the Valdarno region of Tuscany, Italy, erroneously considering them to belong to a bear. In addition to the two teeth of ''Megantereon'', Cuvier included another, much older tooth from the late Miocene of Eppelsheim in Germany in the species, which is now known to belong to the unrelated sab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metailurini
Metailurini is an extinct taxonomic tribe of large saber-toothed cats that lived in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America from the Miocene to the Pleistocene. The best known Metalurini genera are '' Dinofelis'' and '' Metailurus''. Metailurini had canines longer than ''Neofelis'', but smaller than true saber toothed cats. The teeth were also more conical than flat, so called "scimitar-toothed", having broad and mildly elongated upper canines. Like most extinct cats, the majority of species in Metailurini are known primarily from fragments. However, the systematic position and taxonomy of these creatures is now accepted as being true members of Felidae and descended from ''Proailurus'' and ''Pseudaelurus''. Within Felidae, they had been traditionally considered to belong in Machairodontinae, albeit some have in the past proposed a relationship to Pantherinae,Lars W. van den Hoek Ostende, Michael Morlo, Doris Nagel: ''Fossils explained 52 Majestic killers: the sabre-toothed cats. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Felidae
Felidae ( ) is the Family (biology), family of mammals in the Order (biology), order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats. A member of this family is also called a felid ( ). The 41 extant taxon, extant Felidae species exhibit the greatest diversity in fur patterns of all terrestrial carnivores. Cats have retractile claws, slender muscular bodies and strong flexible forelimbs. Their teeth and facial muscles allow for a powerful bite. They are all obligate carnivores, and most are solitary predators ambushing or stalking their prey. Wild cats occur in Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas. Some wild cat species are adapted to forest and savanna habitats, some to arid environments, and a few also to wetlands and mountainous terrain. Their activity patterns range from nocturnal and crepuscular to Diurnality, diurnal, depending on their preferred prey species. Reginald Innes Pocock divided the extant Felidae into three subfamilies: the Pantherinae, the Felinae and the Acin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sparassodonta
Sparassodonta (from Ancient Greek, Greek ['], to tear, rend; and , gen. [', '], tooth) is an extinct order (biology), order of carnivore, carnivorous metatherian mammals native to South America, related to modern marsupials. They were once considered to be true marsupials, but are now thought to be a separate side branch that split before the last common ancestor of all modern marsupials. A number of these mammalian predators closely resemble placental predators that evolved separately on other continents, and are cited frequently as examples of convergent evolution. They were first described by Florentino Ameghino, from fossils found in the Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia. Sparassodonts were present throughout South America's long period of "splendid isolation" during the Cenozoic; during this time, they shared the niches for large warm-blooded predators with the flightless Phorusrhacidae, terror birds. Previously, it was thought that these mammals died out in the face of competi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thylacosmilidae
Thylacosmilidae is an extinct family of metatherian predators, related to the modern marsupials, which lived in South America between the Miocene and Pliocene epochs. Like other South American mammalian predators that lived prior to the Great American Biotic Interchange, these animals belonged to the order Sparassodonta, which occupied the ecological niche of many eutherian mammals of the order Carnivora from other continents. The family's most notable feature are the elongated, laterally flattened fangs, which is a remarkable evolutionary convergence with other saber-toothed mammals like '' Barbourofelis'' and ''Smilodon''. Taxonomic history The family Thylacosmilidae was originally erected by Riggs in 1933, to accommodate '' Thylacosmilus'', found in the Pliocene Brochero Formation of Argentina. Later, the family was demoted to a subfamily, as Thylacosmilinae, within Borhyaenidae, a group of superficially canid-like sparassodonts, under the assumption that ''Thylacosmilus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asphyxia
Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects all the tissues and organs, some more rapidly than others. There are many circumstances that can induce asphyxia, all of which are characterized by the inability of a person to acquire sufficient oxygen through breathing for an extended period of time. Asphyxia can cause coma or death. In 2015, about 9.8 million cases of unintentional suffocation occurred which resulted in 35,600 deaths. The word asphyxia is from Ancient Greek "without" and , "squeeze" (throb of heart). Causes Situations that can cause asphyxia include but are not limited to: airway obstruction (such as from asthma, laryngospasm, or simple blockage from the presence of foreign materials); from being in environments where oxygen is not readily accessible: such as underwater, in a low oxygen atmosphere, or in a vacuum; environments where s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deltatheroida
Deltatheroida is an extinct group of basal metatherians that were distantly related to modern marsupials. The majority of known members of the group lived in the Cretaceous; one species, '' Gurbanodelta kara'', is known from the late Paleocene ( Gashatan) of China. Their fossils are restricted to Central Asia and North America. This order can be defined as all metatherians closer to '' Deltatheridium'' than to Marsupialia. When they were first identified in the 1920s, they were believed to be placentals and possible ancestors of the " creodonts" (a polyphyletic group of extinct carnivorous mammals from the Paleogene and Miocene), but this was later disproven. Nonetheless, deltatheroideans do converge on hyaenodontids, oxyaenids, carnivorans, dasyuromorphs, thylacoleonids and sparassodonts in many details of their dental anatomy, suggesting a carnivorous lifestyle.CHRISTIAN DE MUIZON and BRIGITTE LANGE-BADRÉ, Carnivorous dental adaptations in tribosphenic mammals and phylo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyaenodonta
Hyaenodonta (" hyena teeth") is an extinct order of hypercarnivorous placental mammals of clade Pan-Carnivora from mirorder Ferae. Hyaenodonts were important mammalian predators that arose during the early Paleocene in Europe and persisted well into the late Miocene. Characteristics Hyaenodonts are characterized by long, often disproportionately large skulls, slender jaws, and slim bodies. They generally ranged in size from 30 to 140 cm at the shoulder. While '' Simbakubwa kutokaafrika'' may have been up to (surpassing the modern polar bear in size), this estimate is suspect due to being based on skull-body size ratios derived from felids, which have much smaller skulls for their body size. Other large hyaenodonts include two close and later-surviving relatives of ''Simbakubwa'', '' Hyainailouros'' and '' Megistotherium'' (the latter likely being the largest in the group), and the much earlier-living '' Hyaenodon gigas'' (the largest species from genus '' Hyaenodo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
